Profile

After studying physics and English language and literature at the Complutense University of Madrid, I moved to the UK to read for an MA in Shakespeare and Theatre at the Shakespeare Institute of the University of Birmingham, Stratford-upon-Avon, where I stayed on to undertake my doctorate. My thesis was a modern-spelling critical edition of John Fletcher and Philip Massinger's 1615 comedy Love's Cure, or The Martial Maid, which was based on a Spanish comedia of the same period, La fuerza de la costumbre (The Force of Custom) by the Valencian dramatist Guillén de Castro. I was appointed Research Fellow at the School of English of the University of Leeds in 2015 to work on the new critical edition of the complete works of John Marston (1576-1634), due to be published by Oxford University Press in 2020 under the general editorship of Professor Martin Butler (Leeds) and Professor Matthew Steggle (University of Bristol). I have particular responsibility over the old-spelling text that will be published as part of the Oxford Scholarly Editions Online (OSEO) alongside the modern-spelling edition.

At Leeds I also convene The Playhouse Lab, a forum to experiment with Renaissance drama from a practical point of view, offering a series of unrehearsed script-in-hand performances of plays from the period in the Workshop Theatre. Our aim is to support teaching and research in the School of English, scheduling plays from our undergraduate modules (Level 1 Drama, Level 2 Renaissance Literature, Level 2 and 3 Jacobean Drama, and Level 3 Shakespeare, among other modules), as well as plays being edited by members of the School.

Research interests

As an editor and bibliographer, I have a keen commitment to editing the drama of the English Renaissance, particularly beyond the works of William Shakespeare. My main historical research focuses on the influence of Spanish imaginative literature on the work of the dramatists of the Jacobean period (1603-1625), particularly with respect to John Fletcher (1579-1625) and his circle of frequent collaborators (Francis Beaumont, Nathan Field, and Philip Massinger). My interest in Anglo-Spanish cultural relations in the period extends to the study of influential diplomatic and literary connections. For instance, I have conducted extensive archival research on the literary connections of Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, 1st Count of Gondomar (1567-1626), who was twice ambassador from the King of Spain at James I's court (1613-18 and 1620-22).

My other main field of research is performance studies, particularly with respect to the analysis of modern productions of Shakespeare and other Renaissance drama. I am Associate Editor for England of Reviewing Shakespeare, and I have published reviews in Shakespeare Bulletin, Cahiers Élisabéthains, and Shakespeare (British Shakespeare Association). I am Company Dramaturg of FRED Theatre, and I worked as Research Assistant to Gregory Doran, Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, while he was developing his productions of Richard II (2013), 1 and 2 Henry IV (2014), and Henry V (2015). As an actor I have taken part in staged readings and workshops focused on English Renaissance plays, and have performed in some twenty productions of Shakespeare and other Renaissance drama, both in amateur and in fringe theatre. I have also been able to incorporate my theatrical experience into my research on the stageability of Renaissance plays as part of the process of editing them for a modern readership.

<h4>Research projects</h4>
<p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

Licenciado (Complutensis)

MA

PhD (Birmingham)

PGCert in AP (Open)

FHEA

Professional memberships

Membership Officer sor the British Shakespeare Association

Conference Organiser and Council member for the Malone Society

Shakespeare Association of America

European Shakespeare Research Association

Spanish and Portuguese Society for English Renaissance Studies (SEDERI)